Get...set...Green.

"To clean or not to clean. That is the question." ... asked by Chennai Trekking Club. And 880+ Chennaiites, Indians and citizens of the world answered..."Let's clean!!!"
Chennai coastal cleanup was an initiative by Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) to clean up a 15 Km Chennai coast from Marina till Injambakkam on May 16th 2010. The entire initiative was organized by CTC, a non-profit amateur trekking club, with meticulous planning that spawned over an entire month with help from its volunteer members.

The entire stretch was divided into three zones viz North, Mid and South fronts with 5 teams in each zones. Each team had a catchy name too such as Sand Storm, Chennai Ridley, Beach Warriors (my team!!) and for a French touch, Les Balayeuses. All of the volunteers were asked to assemble at one of the predetermined 11 pick-up points across Chennai around 5-5:15 A.M in the morning. From there on, each went to their respective locations. Each team had two leads who gave specific instructions and tips as to how to proceed with the clean up. My team Beach Warriors was allotted Palavakkam beach area. All of us were provided with a pair of gloves, and colored garbage bags to segregate degradable and non-degradable wastes.

And with just a glance at the beach, we found that it was plastic, plastic and plastic everywhere. Paper cups, water bottles, liquor bottles, gutka and chips packs, and plastic covers accounted for over 75% of the waste we collected, and this is just at Palavakkam. I am pretty sure that this would have been the pattern throughout out entire stretch. Around 6:00 A.m., We all started off with gusto to pick up as much garbage as possible before the unforgiving May Sun started to melt us. The reward of our arduous work was right there before our eyes; the pristine beach. Really can't help to think that with periodical cleaning and maintenance, how beautiful would our coastline be!

The volunteers distribution were across age-groups, professions, and in fact, countries. Around 8:00, we had almost cleaned up our area, and rested for a little snack. At the same time, the garbage truck came to load the garbage, an illustration of the clock-work precision organizing by CTC. One point should be made here. While collecting garbage, we carefully chose to put degradable and non-degradable wastes in separate bags. However, everything was dumped together into the truck causing dismay among the volunteers. On a small talk with the corporations folks, I found that all the garbage was to be taken to Perungundi dumping area and were to be burnt irrespective of the type of wastes. A very livid picture portraying how much there is to do in our city, in fact in our country, for a proper waste management.

With a prior Sunday appointment nearing, I bid adieu to my fellow volunteers and proceeded towards Elliots Beach (Besant Nagar), the final rendezvous point for all teams. Breakfast was being served on the beach for all volunteers, and I helped myself to couple of idlies and vada. I had a chance to catch up with Peter, the man at the helm of CTC. He said, "When we started this initiative and sent out an invitation mail, we got over 20 volunteers in the first day. Then it became 80, 100, with eventually garnering over 600+ volunteers. We also had participation from corporates such as TCS, Nokia, Logica, Vodafone etc and student bodies such as Scouts and IIM-B, snowballing the overall count to over a thousand." After everyone who wanted to assemble had assembled, CTC gave a vote of thanks to all the CTC members, corporates, Police, corporation and the people of Chennai for making this massive initiative a resounding success.

I personally felt very happy that I was able to do something tangible to make my beloved beach to look amazing, albeit for just one day. A very sincere thanks to CTC. Metaphorically speaking, this initiative is a proof that how all of us can come together to weed out the crap spoiling our system. And, all it requires for you to say is "I care", and mean it. We did, and we made a difference.